XCOM: The Resurgance
by Halofan5695
Summary: When a sarcastic, rich, genius, loses his parents to slavers. He goes out in the galaxy for revenge on that Batarian. All the while, rebuilding an old organization, and discovering something worse than Batarian slavers.


Next to a massive, futuristic city stood a mansion. The sun gleamed faint red, like the red glow of a dwarf star off the roofs.

Designed to look like an old, fancy, colonial-era castle; it was like a mansion made of several smaller mansions. Each stone piece was carved perfectly to the description of homes in that era. Windows of the house were made from, old fashioned stain-glass – that perfectly accentuated the old-fashion nature. The nature of it, gleamed with style and art from a time in the year, 2142 – as long gone as the culture it was inspired by was gone. Lost to time.

The road leading to the mansion was created from granite—perfectly carved in its construction. It had headstones placed at thirty meter intervals, that led to the entrance. In between each headstone, a well, perfectly trimmed tree grew from them. Like a perfectly designed architectural marvel from a genius architect.

In a roundabout on the road—in the center, stood a perfectly carved marble statue. It was of a man holding a plasma rifle in a stoic pose. The direction of the rifle went in the sky, aiming for aliens or other extraterrestrial threats. Not a single flaw was in its carving; it being done by an artistic savant with no other abilities.

At the back of the house lay a swimming pool. Unlike most swimming pools, however, was rectangular shaped and over 100 ft deep. It was rather impractical; designed more to vanity than anything else.

Beside the pool was a hot tub, that was ten by five feet in its dimensions. Full of hot water, that would sooth anyone. Created from mosaic tiles in a pattern that formed a man. That man owned the property, and even the planet.

His name was Lionel Joseph Taggart, who came from a long line of people. When ADVENT collapsed, they started using the simpler aspects of Ethereal technology. With the invention of the Bridge Drive by Tygan-Shen Corporation; the Taggart's wealth doubled. Instead of taking swathes of Solar Worlds, they instead moved their sights on the stars. Though, after war with several powerful corporations, they had to… settle for that little star system.

The Taggart's made their coin through claiming land. Often going to other star systems, using the garden worlds as real-estate, marketing the terrestrial worlds as mining colonies. In other ways they make money, they make low quality ships—good for offense, while at the same time terrible for defense. The family did this through their corporation: that is simply dubbed "TagCorp".

Behind the stain glass window of the affluent home, there was a nine year old boy. He was the youngest of the Taggart Family; with several passions of his own. These passions ranged from: Engineering, Applied Sciences, and Military Strategy. He was currently reading on Astrophysics. It was one of the subjects that confused him, despite his IQ of 190 – 210.

He couldn't get navigating in space in three-dimensions, it all seemed redundant to him. Almost like navigating through the ocean with a submarine. But unlike with a submarine, it was very, very confusing for him. There was several dots, each having millions upon… or perhaps billions of equations to each location.

H even had to stay alone to study; doing it alone would just leave him easily distracted. For an extremely intelligent mind that made him look like an idiot.

The math in it was complex, despite the fact when flying, astrophysics at a basic level was important. If someone were to miscalculate, or even worse—not know the difference between a wormhole and a black hole; they'd be stuck off course. To make matters worse, one could die, they could crash into a black hole. Human ships were only FTL when you factor that it was just point A-B travel through psionic wormholes; when one applies Richard Tygan's theory.

In a way he was a discount Da Vinci, he could learn the basics of every concept; to apply that perfectly would send him studying, dumbfounded, for hours. He was more like Tony Stark or Angus P. Macguyver, he could invent things, yet cannot discover anything scientifically. He was more an inventive type than a theoretical type.

Alexander read through the book in twenty minutes, the third time he read that book. He closed the book, placing it gently on his desk. Moved the chair backward, standing up. Gently, he pushed the wooden chair back into its original position.

He heard something from the other end of the halls, Alfred Lawson. The family butler who has been in service for the past twenty years.

"Master, Lex! Please come out of your room! We have a theater to go to!"

He walked ten meters to the door of his bedroom, past the paintings. When he was by the bedroom exit door, he flicked the light switch off. That was because, on planet Damascus III, night and day were almost one in the same. Day being almost as dark as an early on planet Earth.

When the darkness embraced him, he felt around for the doorknob. As soon as he felt it; he turned it, then nudged the door, forward. One step outside the room, he could feel the light from the home's many chandeliers grace his face.

The hallways were mostly made from framed, carved wood. Parts of the halls were laden with the paintings of the founding members of TagCorp. Each member was a soldier, all battled in the Second Ethereal War. In essence, summed up the vast military history of the Taggart Family.

At the left end of the hallway, beside several paintings of the more recent members, stood the family butler. He stood at six feet tall, and weighed from Lex's math 160 lbs. Judging by the gray hair, Lex could tell he was forty; just eighteen years younger than his father, as well as eight years older than his mother.

"My, my, Lex, have you been studying all day! Your mother and father want to take you, to go and see a movie. It's about the mythical asari: according to several sources, they've been seen by Tygan-Shen probes on their planet, Thessia."

Lex replied, sarcastically. "Well! At least it will heighten my intellectual curiosity."

"Yes, Master, L, it will! Though keep in mind, I've watched it. It's not one of those 'turn your brain off' action movies. This is a deeply intellectual film on how aliens could try and hamper our way of life!"

"Ah, thanks, Alfred!"

Alfred cocked an eyebrow

"I'll escort you to the limo!"

* * *

Inside the Captain's Quarters of a stolen Asari vessel, everything was modified to Batarian tastes. There was a large computer by the desk, with a large, holographic computer screen atop the desk. On that screen were the images from the probes; that were sent from Borak. Sitting on a smooth steel, cushioned chair, sat an armored figure.

Borak was scouting the enemy planet from his chair. He was at it for weeks, looking for cracks in their defenses. But, to his knowledge, he found not a shred; every place in that city and even the old, seemingly undefended mansion seemed to be protected. It was like trying to hit a Dreadnought with a nuclear missile; GARDIAN defenses made that impossible.

Though in his thinking in that brightly-lit room, he did, however, gather some intel. The colony was owned and operated by TagCorp. From what he could gather on the probes found on Thessia, by his contacts in the High Command. TagCorp was a giant corporation so powerful, it bordered on being a government of sorts. As of then, it was just a shell of its former self.

They were still known for one thing… its armies and fleets. Its board of directors would hire the best military strategists. Which was why Borak chose to hide with a small frigate, at least one astronomical unit from the corporate-controlled garden world. He did not want to be sighted by a ship or satellite. It could prove disastrous to his great mission.

That mission was simply: find a specimen of that species. He would earn at least a sum in the billions for completing his task. But he had a better idea, when he brought up the contract of his, from the Broker; he was going to film himself killing them. What better to film himself and his cronies killing the Chief Executive Officer and his wife.

From there, he looked at the plans of starting his own enterprise. Where he grabbed his journal, and made plans for his venture to use those billions as start-up. That start-up would have a new goal: the enslavement of this new, enigmatic species.

He was getting ahead of himself, he hadn't killed Lionel Joseph Taggart himself yet. From what he could tell their vehicle was over a point where he could not engage. There was too many potential anti-aircraft defenses for him to land. To make matter worse, these aliens had weapons that could bypass kinetic barriers and melt armor.

That vehicle was also giving energy signatures. Not only that, but was forged from a metal that was several orders of magnitude stronger than starship plating. For all Borak knew, the vehicle on the screen could be a tank. But one thing confused him: tanks don't have windows, and aren't coated in opalescent gold.

His four faux eyebrows cocked one in curiosity.

From the back of his spacious quarters, somebody opened the hydraulic door.

He heard voice from behind him; Borak shifted his head. It was Jona Sedaris.

"Have you gathered any intel on the species we're capturing?"

"Yes, as a matter of speaking, I have, Jona!"

"Are we still capturing?"

"Well there's one technicality: we can kill them, but we have to film ourselves doing the deed."

"Here's something new, Borak! The Galaxy's first (first contact) snuff vid."

"The perfect mix of insanity and comedy aren't you, Sedaris?"

"I try my best. It's ironic that I'm a psychopath, by asari standards. At the same time I hold a psychology degree."

She continued.

"Who are we snuffing of this specific species?"

Borak cocked a side of eyes.

"Lionel Joseph Taggart! He owns this world. So I want his death an ironic downfall of his vanity and pride."

From the monitor, Borak clicked on a ref image on his monitor. It showed a picture of the man they were killing, in almost perfect detail. He was short, had very broad muscular shoulders. His face was perfectly angular, not showing a single sign of aging. Then there was his hair. His hair was short at the front, long at the back, and it was gray. Borak and Sedaris just discovered from this picture; these creatures aged through changes in their hair color, and tissue elasticity.

Sedaris walked even closer, looming over Borak's sitting position.

"A rich old man. I've seen that a lot in Turians and Batarians. Does he have significant other? Perhaps… a lot younger? Borak?"

Borak looked up at her, giving the evil toothy grin of a Batarian.

"Why, yes. He does!"

Borak traced his finger under a square, under the CEO's Dossier. He then looked at Jona Sedaris, and said, smiling.

"I'm debating on whether killing her, or just taking her back to my ship. Where I'm going to choke her, and relieve myself inside her, while her screams echo through my ship or residence."

An image of a woman then replaced Lionel Joseph Taggart. She appeared to be in her thirties, looking to Sedaris like an Asari Maiden. Though, with several key differences, her skin was white, as white as an ice-moon. Her hair was also a similar color, but an even lighter shade of white. Like she was a curiosity or a freak that some rich deviant would keep as a living sex toy. Even then, something was off, her eyes. Her eyes glowed a faint purple, along with an aura of purple energy dimly showing from her perfect face. She, strangely, resembled a young Asari Maiden, who Benezia had hired Sederis to run a psychiatric examination of her Prothean obsession.

"I want her as a slave, too, Borak!" Commented Sederis, with a sadistic smirk.

She continued into a brief discussion.

"How about, we snuff them both!"

"Yes, I'm getting a tingly feeling imagining what the color blood is? I would want some collected so I can bathe in it when we encounter more of these creatures!"

Borak's Batarian face grinned further.

"Let's launch the op! I want to see to this personally!"

* * *

The theater in the city of New Boston was amazing. It perfectly replicated the older American Hollywood theaters in aesthetic design. Round, angular circles had neon lights that read the movie schedules of the showing. Like an airplane departure from current to late, it showed the list of films on the neon signs. The series went from: "Asari Contact!, Batarian Nightmare, Bubbles the Turian. All were shown on that architectural marvel from the twentieth century. A perfect mix of modern and ancient technology intertwined as one.

For him and his family, the theater staff laid out a red carpet. For the owner who sold them their land for cheap. People surrounded that red, velvet carpet, snapping pictures with their cameras and smartphones. Alexander felt really, really out of place. His mother was in a blue sequin dress, with her psionic white hair, long and straight. His Dad was wearing a two piece suit with a golden fleeced tie; his hair was in a mullet. Lex, however, just wore a T-shirt and jeans; the T-shirt had a symbol of a hydrogen atom on it.

They approached the doors of the theater, with the flashes of cameras gracing their faces. As they entered the door, a theater employee held it open.

Alexander commented in curiosity.

"Well? We seem to be getting everything for free?"

Well, son, of course. We, technically own a majority of the planet. So of course businesses will cater to us." His Father replied with an answer.

"It also means I get free beauty treatments!" interjected Lillian Taggart

They were led to a VIP catering center; next to the standard catering center on the back right. One of the main differences, was that the VIP center had an attractive, blonde female, in a white button shirt and a black skirt; the other, on the right, had an overweight man with thick glasses sell the food and drink. The one on the right had the most customers, for obvious reasons.

The lady at the VIP Catering Center asked.

"What would the three of you people want?"

"I want a large Snow Cola, some popcorn laced with BBQ seasoning." Lex blurted out in anticipation.

"Um… I will have nothing. I need to watch my figure. Don't want my husband's eyes wandering to other women."

"I see?"

"I would like a hot dog and some nachos."

Alexander blurted out sarcastically.

"To my surprise. We don't have to pay a single coin!"

"Yes, little child. All the caterings of this theater are free, for VIPs, of course."

"Now proceed to the hall of the center. Head to the VIP Balcony. Each room of this theater has one. I'll have one of our VIP employees hand you your food."

In between the standard and VIP catering centers, there was a large square-shaped hallway. It led to the various movies in the theater. Beside each passageway to a theater room, there was a large VIP passageway that lead to an upper-balcony.

They proceeded to the nearest VIP passageway. Movies in the theater tend to have the earliest played movies in the front. "Asari Contact!" was going to be played first. It made sense to go for the VIP passageway in the first room.

As soon as they walked to the VIP passageway, there were cramped stairs. On those cramped staircases, there were red, velvet carpets. At the least, the Theater managed the formality of the VIP passageway. There were no lines. To the family, that was a good thing; they were the only rich people there at the time.

When they passed through that cramped staircase in single file, they found their spot. The VIP area was elegant, to say the least. Sofas were placed in positions on the edge of the balcony. Each sofa was the same model the family used: ornate frames made of gold. On closer inspection, these sofas had golden opera glasses on the cushions.

They all positioned themselves into their sofas. Then, they waited for a few minutes for the movie to start once the people were in the room. So, the holo-projector can show the movie, in all its 3-dimensional glory.

Lex observed below those people, with his opera glasses. They were lining the seats row by row, slowly as possible. It was one of the reasons he was glad to be rich; he hated being crowded with large groups of morons.

Lionel's head shifted to his son, slightly.

"You're better than those people, son! You just wait!"

"I know, father! I'm smarter than all of them." Alexander muttered with a grin.

Their conversation was cut short as the lights in the theater turned off. This could only mean one thing to Lex the moment it happened. The commercials and trailers were starting pre-play. It was a thing that Lex hated about movie theaters. All the trailers, the crappy commercials for vaperware, it was all just a pile of fucking shit to him.

Lex groaned as soon as he heard an obnoxiously positive voice on the holo-projector. When the annoying voice was over, it looked like an advert for a reality show. Not just any reality show, the reality that films Hanar on their homeplanet. They called it "Durr Jellyfish", like the title writer was a goddamn retard pulled from special ed. Lex Taggart rolled his eyes, thinking: NEXT!

When the next trailer played, it was about a superhero. The superhero in that movie, was Batman. Only this time, he was fighting an army of Batarian slavers looking to conquer Gotham colony. Judging by the tone of the presenter's voice, Lex could swear to God he was on cocaine. There was one good thing to come out of these two pieces of crap.

Lex could hear footsteps that sounded like they came from high-heels. It was a young woman, who was sent by the caterer in VIP Catering. She passed the popcorn and Coke Cola over to Lex; the hotdog and nachos over to Lionel. Lex thought, his food in hand: finally, one of the sluts finally handed the food!

He chose to save his food until the film started. Lionel, however, was hungry; he skipped breakfast before coming here. So, he gobbled his food before the film started.

As soon as Lex could see the "silence!" warning sign on the movie, he breathed a sigh of relief. That could only mean one thing, the movie was about to play. No more commercials of retarded ass crap from film executives who should step-down, he concluded.

The film started off with a trillionaire named Shreck. Who's corporation was about to make first-contact with the Asari. He was always anxious about the Asari nationalizing his company under the grounds of galactic good. Because he knew nothing. Not a thing about that species. Their culture, their morals, their economy were a mystery to him.

When he made first contact, they asked questions about his species. Many of these questions raised from: government, law, and culture. The only response Shreck could give was, "we have no government." These Asari, all-female species with a propensity to mate with other aliens, devised a plan. That plan, was to nationalize all corporate assets and technology from Shreck Industries.

Upon finding out of this plan, Shreck sets up another strategy. He creates a biological weapon that infects asari, causing insanity. To do this, he hired a man named Calvert, who created the virus with engineered H5N1. Shreck secretly funded a group of mercs to deploy that weapon on the Asari homeworld.

That was one of the best pieces of cinema Lex had ever seen. The evil state gets wiped out, and the protagonist revels eternity in endless wealth. It was the Godfather of Lex's time.

Lex clapped his hands after the credits were rolling; everyone else in the screening followed suit. He was not the only one who could enjoy that, loads of people in that theater seemed to. It seemed he underestimated the mental capacity of the average person. A mistake he would not make again.

After that round of applause, he grabbed the empty, cardboard box of theater popcorn. He placed his empty forty-ounce cup of pop in the cardboard box. Walked over to the golden trashcan at the back, and dropped his garbage. His father did the same.

As soon as the garbage was in the can, the lights turned back on. Upon that, his mother left her seat, joining her husband and son.

They went back down the velvety stairs, once again. Lex almost hated the pretentious need for them to be traditional—theaters did not use red, velvet carpets anymore. But at the same time, while walking down, he admired their traditionalism.

Upon leaving the hall to the entrance, the lady who accepted their orders gave them a "thank you!" card. It was often something rich people received for attending the VIP section. Often for just approval from the wealthy VIP for an investment into their business. She smiled as Lex passed her by.

As Lex and his family walked to the door, the blonde, female theater employee held the metal-framed, glass door open for him and his family. It saved Lionel or Lillian the trouble of having to open the door themselves. Not only that, Lex also enjoyed the thought of people serving him, for almost next to nothing.

Outside, in the faint daylight of a dwarf star, they waited for their chauffeur. The man who drove them to the theater in the opalescent gold limo designed by Taggart, at age six. As it would seem, he was taking a long time to get there. As if, Alfred Lawson was off getting the family something extra.

There stood, an apartment complex, across the road from the theater. On the windows, there was red splotches of blood and flesh. Lex just looked at it and fell silent. He did not know why there was blood there? Were it be, a tenent was throwing a fit with a chainsaw? These questions made Lex feel ill, as he could not tell what was happening.

Lionel, noticing the blood gore from the direction of son's shock, went for the alleyway behind the theater. Lillian ran behind the two men. She had looked back, and had noticed the blood and gore on the windows of that apartment.

In the alleyway, there was a dumpster, a trashcan, all places Lex could hide in. If these people were using plasma weapons, he could gain some cover. He was going to hide in the dumpster. But as soon as footsteps were heard, his mother pressed a button on the yellow dumpster.

She grabbed her son in her arms, and placed in with the trash bags. Lex could feel the garbage underneath the plastic, almost like a bunch of rotten sludge in a bag. He placed his hand at one end, and he could feel a dead animal. It was a filthy place, obviously.

The footsteps on the cement grew a lot less faint. His mother and father went from their usual stoic pose to their fight. But, he could see a very slight amount of what was going outside, as his mother closed the doors of the dumpster.

The dumpster's door made the soft humming sound of an electric motor. As it grew louder, Lex's field of vision was being obstructed more. Soon, he could not see anything, but only hear what was happening.

In the darkness and filth of the dumpster, he heard taunts in a strange language. Then he heard, the racing of air particles, distorted from kinetic energy. That could only mean one thing, the firing of a mass accelerator.

He heard the spatter, the crunching of bone, like if blood was spattered on the brick walls. Two rounds of this in quick succession occurred. After that, he heard the thud of a corpse, by the impact of the concrete, it must have weighed 200 pounds. Concluding the sequence, was the blood-curdling feminine scream through the dumpster.

That scream quickly turned to throaty gurgles. As he could hear the grasping of hands on his mother's neck. Tears were running down Lex's eyes, but all he could do was try not scream. When his mom was still chocking, he heard the tearing of clothes. She started to scream again, only this time, Lex knew it implied something worse.

Lex heard the tearing of flesh and sinew, Lex simply closed his eyes, wishing this was all a bad dream.

He went to sleep, from either shock, or this was… a bad dream.

He awoke to the sound of the dumpster opening. He noticed the family butler, looking at him with shock in his face. Around his butler, he noticed people cleaning flesh and viscera off the walls around the theater.

The police removed him from the dumpster. Draped a blanket around him, and sent him off with the family butler. He was shocked—he couldn't cry—he was like a zombie.

* * *

 **A/N**

What did you think of the Batarians in this chapter? Were they comically evil, I hope not.


End file.
